Connie Brockway Is Launch Author in Amazon’s New Romance Imprint

We had quite a party around here when Connie Brockway announced her intentions to self-publish several books that readers have long been waiting for, including sequels to As You Desireand, my personal favorite, All Through the Night. While this discussion was punctuated with many booyahs, there were also quite a few complaints from those who don’t have an eReader and no plans to get one. Turns out more than just readers were listening.

Here’s Connie:

About a month ago I was here announcing my intention of “going rogue” by writing and publishing my own books. The announcement certainly garnered more attention than I’d expected, including from Amazon. Soon afterward, they contacted me with a fabulous proposition: Would I like to be the launch author Montlake, brand new digital and print and audio publishing imprint dedicated to romance.

It didn’t take long for me to say yes –even though it meant I had to down-grade my status from “rogue” to “roguish.” Because I’d been impressed with AmazonCrossings, and I knew they could do similar wonderful things for the romance genre. Now I don’t mean to sound disingenuous, but my first consideration really was the reader. One of my greatest regrets in “going e” was the thought of disappointing those of you without an eReader. (Oh, yes. I read every comment.) Montlake will make my books available to everyone, in every variety of formats, including print, though digitally the books will only be formatted for Kindle—but remember, you can download a free Kindle app that you can use on your phone or your computer.

What other “wonderful things” will Montlake do? One of the realties I faced when I made my decision to publish digitally was that as energizing and freeing as it would be creatively, it was also going to be a lot of work. And a whole lot of scheduling. Now, to be frank the only time I’ve been able to stick to a schedule was when my daughter was a baby and that was only because she cried bloody murder if I didn’t feed her exactly on time.

I would need to find an editor, a copy editor, someone to write cover copy and help produce the cover, and someone to format it. Then I’d have to schedule all these parts so they worked with all the other parts. And we haven’t even gotten to the important work of selling the book. So, while I liked the idea of bringing my own vision of a book cover to life, I was not thrilled about the rest of it because, as I’m sure most of you know, I’m not a particularly fast wordsmith and all of this, exciting as it is, is ultimately time away from writing.

Montlake is giving me the best of both worlds. They’ll handle all the nuts and bolts of production as well as use their considerable power and acumen to sell the book in a variety of formats (I could never find actors for an audio version of my book. Montlake can. I could never be able to find a translator and all the rest for say a German edition of my book. Montlake can) leaving me to focus on writing the freshest, most thrilling and romantic love stories possible. Stories that aren’t limited by anything but my own imagination.

And just to dot that particular “i” and kick off this venture, I’m thrilled to announce that my first book for Montlake will be The Other Guy’s Bride, and it is, as I have long-promised, the sequel to As You Desire.

I’m so thrilled to finally writing this book. I’m having more fun than I have in years. Thanks to all of you who’ve encouraged me to follow my heart and my instincts and have waited patiently to find out whatever happened to Harry and Dizzy.

As a thank you, I’d like to invite you to join my mailing list. In it, I’ll be keeping you apprised of my progress and sending out sneak peeks at some of the chapters as I write.

Finally, thanks Sandy, for giving me the platform that led to this really exciting venture.

You’re very welcome, Connie. Amazon has excellent taste.

Personally, I’m happy about this and encouraged by Amazon’s bold entry into the romance publishing market. Amazon has always struck me as a smart company -and one that understands the value of keeping a customer over the long haul. (And, speaking of smart, if you have a Kindle, you can download the first three chapters of The Other Guy’s Bride for free now at Amazon.)

The pricing seems sensible to me, as well, with the Kindle copy of the book $4.50 less than the paper version.

So, what do you think? Is this truly going to be the best of both worlds? Are you encouraged by Amazon’s entry into romance publishing? If you have another eReader, do you plan to use the Kindle app to read the book? Does the pricing seem fair to you? What other authors – or type of authors – would you like Amazon to consider? Connie (and Amazon) are ready to hear your thoughts.

53 Responses to Connie Brockway Is Launch Author in Amazon’s New Romance Imprint

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